Dangerous Walk
by SamCyberCat
Summary: When Zak had decided it was time for his three-year-old daughter Trucy to learn how to walk a tightrope his wife disagreed. Zak/Thalassa.


Notes – Done for 15pairings. Set pre-canon when Trucy was a child and lived with both her parents.

* * *

There had been a time when Thalassa had been a broken woman.

After her first husband had died she didn't think she could take the grief of living without him, leaving her son behind before returning to the father she had left a few years prior. She couldn't care for the child in the condition she'd been in and knew it was the best thing for him at the time.

Once she was back with her father, at his will she formed the Troupe Gramarye with two of his apprentices. That was when she fell in love with Zak. He was such a strong, charismatic performer and filled the hole in her heart in a way that she hadn't thought anyone could. It wasn't long before they were married and had a beautiful daughter called Trucy.

Though for all she loved Zak there could be times when he could be a tad… reckless.

One of those times was when she walked into the performance tent to find Zak twenty foot in the air teaching their daughter how to tightrope walk. He had not checked this through with her beforehand.

Rushing over she yelled, "Bring her down right now! Be careful!"

Little Trucy, hearing her mother's voice, turned to wave her arms at her, and slipped.

In that moment Thalassa's world stood still. She saw in slow motion Trucy's feet leave the rope, and at the last second Zak's strong arms reached down to grab her, pulling her back up to safety.

Once the moment had past Thalassa collapsed to the floor in tears. Then her tears made Trucy cry, and Zak was left looking from one girl to the next without knowing what to do.

It seemed he wasn't in too much trouble when he carried Trucy down the ladders and Thalassa rushed over to take the child into her arms.

It seemed he wasn't in too much trouble when Thalassa comforted their child and stopped her from crying.

It seemed he wasn't in too much trouble when she carried their daughter to the entrance of the tent to go play with her uncle Valant, all the while not meeting Zak's eyes.

Then he was in trouble.

"How could you put our daughter in that kind of danger!" she yelled, turning to him as soon as Trucy was out of earshot.

"She was in no danger until you distracted her," Zak reasoned, somewhat defensive about her questioning his judgement.

"We have practise ropes, a few feet off the ground. Those are what you use to teach people how to walk on a tightrope!" Thalassa went on.

Zak frowned, replying, "No daughter of mine is going to be taught like some amateur. If she can't walk a tightrope from such a height at a young age she'll never be worthy of inheriting the Gramarye name."

"She's three years old!" Thalassa screeched.

Not even Zak was pigheaded enough to point out that she'd be four in a few months.

He let a few seconds go by then said, "She seemed to be quite taken with it. When I was her age I was already walking the ropes."

Whether this was true or not Thalassa didn't question, taking a deep breath before saying her next sentence.

"You really don't understand, do you?"

"About tightrope walking?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, about how dangerous this is," she said, "I lost the first man I loved on stage. You just don't see how dangerous it is to be out there, and you won't know how much it hurts to lose someone you love that way until it happens to Trucy."

"Don't talk like that, Trucy's not going to get hurt on stage!" replied Zak, but the meaning of it hit home.

"Not if you do things properly," she said, seeming to still be forcing back tears, "She's as stubborn as you are, Zak, even at her age. And if we don't take care of her properly she could take all kinds of risks. She doesn't have our experience."

It wasn't often that Zak allowed himself to lose an argument. He was the sort of person who had to have the last word. But hearing Thalassa say that and seeing the pain on her face overwhelmed him. He stepped forward to hug her, holding her in a tight embrace. She seemed to allow him but it didn't stop her from sobbing more freely than she had before.

He really didn't understand her sometimes, so willing to take comfort in the man who had a few minutes ago had been the source of the problem. And he knew that he didn't understand what it felt like to lose someone you cared about on stage.

But for his wife's sake he would strive to make sure that didn't happen to their daughter, or to her.


End file.
